Hello,I saw on your interactive card that you find water in Croatia to be excellent. I dont know about your standards in your country, but you cannot make classification based on Your own perception of excellent. As the best water or top of scale should be water which is the best in whole europe, first of all you need to find this water.

For example saying that water in Zagreb is excellent is out of mind, because comparing to water in lets say Rijeka it is toxic, polluted and unhealthy. But obviously for the water in your country they are both excellent, but they are far to be considered in same category. It is known fact that most people from Rijeka when visiting Zagreb do not drink their water. This is just one example.

Other thing much more important is your wrong classification of sea water. For years you give polluted beaches blue flag in my country there is also local saying that you can buy blue flag from you for some sum of money. If there was real law your agency would cease to exist and you would all be punished. Not just that you give blue flag on beaches in or near major cities and refineries, but you dont even consider the waste waters in small towns, which dont have basic lenght of their exhaust in sea. 90% of your classification is wrong, and this gives people and tourists false knowledge of where they are and how safe it really is.

If you dont know what clean sea is then you are by no authority the ones who can make any classification. Personally on 20 beaches that have blue flag which are the nearest to my home I would consider safe and clean none, also your blue flag is reminder not to go anywhere near.

The EEA’s task is to provide sound, independent information on Europe’s environment. The EEA staff work objectively and impartially and would under no circumstances accept any favour, gift or payment from any source outside the Agency.

Since Croatia is finally full member of European union it is time that you start looking at us as family. If there is such 'voluntary eco-label Blue Flag' then is your job to finally do something about it. First of all I suggest that on your maps and charts you use different sign and color for labeling beaches, in this way there will be no confusion between you and 'voluntary eco-label Blue Flag'. Secondly I suggest that you personally visit these 1000 places and take your own samples.

Also the top of chart for drinking water should be taste and for sea water the feeling or sensation, and these are human senses which cannot be reproduced in laboratory or computed with models.

All Im saying is that some order should be finally made, someone needs to stop giving blue flags on beaches where water is polluted, each site should be strictly inspected. Excellent should be divided into categories, the causes of diversity should be found and punished. It is not hard process there are few main reasons excessive silting and sewage exhausts not far enough from the shore. And few others, like beaches that act as closed basin without currents which can accept fixed number of swimmers, and when this number is excessive the water gets polluted directly from humans + sand/gravel beaches where people walk their home animals 10 months and in season tourists roll themselves in all that and then they all wash and swim in all that.

Maybe your agency is not the one who can make these changes but I hope someone will, it is not hard job. But this job should not be done by our agencies, the obvious reason is that this exist but none care to do something about it.

The above comments are very interesting. It seems that publication by EEA of bathing water quality relies on reports coming from local authorities. That information is published as a European funded report with interactive maps and therefore tourists going on holiday may read and think this European information is good and rely on it.I have recently read more about the bathing conditions off Nerja, Andalucia, Spain where the main town beach called Burriana has received the very best quality standard for the past 10 years. And yet there is no Blue Flag award. What's more just reading about visitors experiences of using this beach on Trip Advisor Nerja Forum would send very strong signals to any person to suggest that it is very unwise to bathe in the sea. At least until the sewage plant has been installed by the local authorities. Meanwhile your Map shows =Excellent water quality or Compliant with the guide values (CG)Perhaps a read through of this thread may give some cause of concern?http://www.tripadvisor.co.u[…]ce_of_Malaga_Andalucia.html

My question is : Should the EEA be publishing information which has not been satisfactorily verified.

All the data used for The Bathing Water Report have been verified by the countries that have provided the data.Please remember that the data used for The Bathing Water Report is a compilation of data gathered the previous year and that many conditions can affect the bathing water quality in between the year of the collection of the data and the year where The Bathing Water Report gets published.

I saw in the news that you made new testing in Croatia now that you know the clear water is in Licko-senjska zupanija this should be taken as a standard and top of the ladder, and since you also know where is water the most poluted in places like Split these should be taken as bottom of the ladder.

''Excellent quality'' does not mean anything, there should be degree ladder, from 1-10 or better from 1-100. By your map the quality ''excellent'' is in Kosterna, Crikvenica and region between Klenovica and Senj, but the truth is far from ''excellent'' in Kostrena just the fact that beach is located between oil rephinery and shipyard cannot be excellent, same goes for Crkvenica all beaches are full of animal waste and sea life is all ruined by extreme silting + sewage waters and currents that do not allow fast dissintegration. Crikvenica is just one example, every beach in every place that is silted have these same problems, same goes for concrete constructions where builders did not think one minute about currents.

If you want clear water when you visit Croatia then you should disallow silting and building projects without proper oceanography current study. Otherwise you will still roll and swim in human and animal waste.

Advice, buy/rent a boat and go swimming far away from every town cause that is what we local people do, none of us goes on the beaches in our ow towns cause of the facts stated above.